Pupa Ventures
Builders together, strong.
We are a mission-driven VC led by former builder-founders, supporting new builder-founders across deep-tech, Physical AI, and health-tech—with love for academic ecosystems.
Who we are
Silicon Valley–based, builders-led. We back early-stage builder-founders in health-tech and deep-tech—especially where university ecosystems meet hardware, AI, and physical systems.
Research → prototype → company. We show up in the formative stretch where technical capability turns into a company the market can understand.
Our story
From Carnegie Mellon & Stanford to a national footprint
We started as an idea at Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University, and we're expanding across the U.S. and beyond. Our mission is to back founders at the fragile stage where capability becomes a company—not to spray capital at trends.
We don't optimize for hype. We partner with technically ambitious teams in the stretch where research becomes a product and prototypes become traction.
Meet the teamMission
Transformation before scale.
Builders-led capital for the earliest stage of transformation—where insight compounds and patience is a feature, not a bug.
Philosophy
Metamorphosis in nature
Nature is our inspiration: how a caterpillar forms a pupa and emerges through metamorphosis mirrors how we support early-stage founders—patient, deliberate, oriented toward emergence before scale.
Community
Deep-tech, Physical AI & health-tech in one roof
We're building a tight-knit community in Palo Alto—builders, researchers, and founders under one roof. Ideas shared openly; collaborations that happen naturally; technologies moving from concept to reality.
Accelerator
Operator-led, launch-oriented
An operator-led accelerator for idea → prototype → venture-backed company—hands-on support, real build cycles, access to talent and capital to launch deep-tech and Physical AI startups, including health-tech.
Builders first